News Briefs

Thousands marched through Mexico City on May 8 calling for new public policies in the drug war and the end of violence that has claimed more than 36,000 lives. • The Anglican liturgist Rev. David Holeton said other Christians were “both stunned and dismayed” when the Vatican abandoned the English texts of prayers Catholics had developed with them since the Second Vatican Council. • Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, D.C., took symbolic “possession” on May 8 of the Church of St. Peter in Chains, in Rome, home to Michelangelo’s sculpture of Moses. • An Indiana prosecutor dropped charges on May 5 against 94 people arrested for trespassing on the University of Notre Dame’s campus while protesting the invitation in 2009 to President Barack Obama to give that year’s commencement address. • On May 4 the House of Representatives approved a bill that would, among other measures, make the Hyde Amendment permanent, though it is not expected to succeed in the Senate. • The Rev. Mario Rodriguez, National Director of Pontifical Mission Societies in Pakistan, reports tension remains high after the killing of Osama bin Laden, but that churches and schools in Karachi have reopened and pastoral activities have returned to a normal pace.